Official Book Syllabus

Updated March 30th, 2015

IMPORTANT:
Please savethis document so you can easily access the links for each chapter.
You can also easily downloadand add a bookmarks folder in your browser which includes all the links.

How Long Until I Will Be Able to.?

Students love to ask these types of questions, and the answer is always: it depends.
This outline serves as a rough timeline that will apply to the average student. Of course, every student
arrives to the course with different levels of training, different learning challenges, and different bad
habits. For this reason, different exercises and milestones will take longer for different people.
In each step, we try to provide an indication as to when youll know its time move on, and a
suggestion along the side of the syllabus as to roughlywhere you should be week after week. As
always, use your judgement, be a responsible student, and if you feel you arent doing well at a
particular game or exercise, spend more time on it, rather than forcing yourself to move on.

Remember: Learning is Not a Spectator Sport!

In the first part of Week 1, we get acquainted, brief you on how things will work, and do some important prep
work to make sure you are set up to succeed in the course. Then, we dive deep into the first and most important
part of superlearning ability: understanding and improving our memory.

SECTION 1: INTRODUCTION

Chapter 1 -About us: how this course came to be

Recommended Supplementary Materials

Become a SuperLearner Online Course(Optional Supplement to the Book)
Become a Superlearner Facebook Group- Join the Conversation!
Become a Superlearner Facebook Fan Page- Show Your Support!
Becoming SuperHuman- Spinoff Blog & Podcast w/ Educational Interviews
KeyToStudy Blogby Dr. Lev - Advanced topics, exercises, & more!
Chapter 2 -Course Syllabus

Chapter 3 -Learning how to learn

Chapter 4 -What is a "Super Learner," anyways?
Recommended Supplemental Materials
An Interview w/ Memory Champ Nelson Dellis- Becoming SuperHuman
TEDx - Benny Lewis - Fluent in Three Months - Rapid Language Hacking
Teen Speaks Over 20 Languages
How to become a Memory Master: Idriz Zogaj at TEDxGoteborg
Tim Ferriss: Smash fear, learn anything | Video on TED.com
The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance

Chapter 5 -Overview: What you'll be learning

Recommended Supplemental Materials:

Progressive Overload: Wikipedia
Homework: Write out 3-5 reasons or applications. Why do you want to succeed?
Tip: Put this piece of paper somewhere near your workstation so you see it daily.

SECTION 2: IMPROVE YOUR MEMORY: BUILDING THE SUPERLEARNING INFRASTRUCTURE

Baseline Reading Speed & Retention Test: (Appendix 1)
Reading Speed: ___________wpm
Reading Retention: __________%

Chapter 6 -Why we need to improve our memory first

Chapter 7 -How we store information: a very brief explanation
Recommended Supplemental Materials
How Your Brain Works
What is the memory capacity of the human brain?

Chapter 8 -Why images are the most powerful way to remember

Recommended Supplemental Materials

Joshua Foer: Feats of memory anyone can do | Video on TED.com
How to Train Your Brain and Boost Your Memory Like a Memory Cham
Moonwalking with Einstein, The Art and Science of Remembering
Picture superiority effect
The art of memory: Daniel Kilov at TEDxMacquarieUniver
Chapter 9 -What types of images come naturally to you?

Chapter 10 -The theory in action: learning something new

Exercise: Visit Wikipedia & Try It Yourself
With the first week over, you should have a firm understanding of how memory works, and a good idea of what is
required to dramatically improve it. Though we havent learned many applicable skills yet, were now ready to!

In week 2, well dive into the meat of the course - markers. Well learn how to apply the picture superiority affect
to learning, and do extensive exercises and practice to develop this all-important skill in your superlearning toolkit.

SECTION 3: USING MENTAL MARKERS FOR LEARNING

Chapter 11 -What do pictures have to do with reading?

Recommended Supplementary Materials:

Peter Doolittle How your working memory makes sense of the world

Chapter 12 -Creating effective markers for better memory

Homework (ok to continue lectures)

The Short Term Memory Checker: 10m/day till you beat Lvl. Max
The Random Images Generator: 10m/day till youre comfortable
Check out this Tag Cloud Generator- it can help you choose markers!
Chapter 13 -Demonstration: Creating Markers as we Read

Chapter 14 -Trying out your new skills

Homework (ok to continue lectures, but consider pausing 2 days to practice)
Habituate using markers for everyday tasks (meeting people, etc)
Practice creating visual markers for 10m/day until you feel comfortable

Chapter 15 (New!) -Linking Markers for Better Retention

Homework
Practice linking markers for 15m/day until you feel comfortable
Advanced: Practice linking & memorizing words10m/day

Generally, students practice the Week 2 exercises for a week, but continue to practice them even as they move on
to Week 3. Week 4 will introduce a lot of new homework and daily exercises, which means that youll have a lot of
daily work to do if you dont master the Week 2 exercises before then. When you can easily create visual markers for
any type of idea, you can stop playing the Week 2 games and focus on the Weeks 3 & 4 homework.

While you might be eager to begin learning to speed read, theres just one more step; pre-reading. In Week 3, we
will learn about pre-reading, why its important, and how to do it properly.

SECTION 4: PRE-READING AND PREPARATION

Chapter 16 -Pre-read before you read

Chapter 17 -Creating an intense interest and curiosity

Homework(ok to continue lectures, but keep practicing markers)
Pre-read any material you read. Practice creating questions & curiosity
Continue practicing games from Week 2
Recommended Supplementary Materials
Malcolm Knowles, Informal adult education, self-direction and andragogy
Remember: Like we said, things are going to get a bit hectic next week, as we start speed reading and then
combining our existing skills with speed reading. Youll also get all new games for Week 4. For this reason, Week 3
was very light on lectures and homework, so that you can use this time to get ahead and practice all the exercises
and games from Week 2.

With pre-reading now firmly ingrained in our skill set, we are ready to dive into speed reading. This can be
challenging for some, so we take it step-by-step. Its important to be responsible with all of your homework, too!

SECTION 5: READ WITH YOUR EYES, NOT WITH YOUR INNER VOICE

Reading Speed & Comprehension Test #2 (Appendix 2)

Reading Speed: ___________wpm

Reading Retention ________ %

Chapter 18 -How most people read: subvocalization

Chapter 19 -Saccades: using your eyes as effectively as possible

Recommended Supplementary Resources
Readability
Chrome Web Store
Pocket
Instapaper
Homework (ok to continue lectures, but dont brush over homework or forget it)
Camera Mind Game: 10m/day, alongside others, till comfortable

Chapter 20 -Improving your eye span: wider saccades

Homework (ok to continue lectures, but dont neglect these exercises)

Schultz Table Exercises: 10m/day. This can replace the 10m/day youre

spending on Short Term Memory Checker only if youve seen improvement

Advanced Schultz Table Exercises: Replace the exercise above with this one
only when the standard exercises become easy for you. (10m/day)

Chapter 21 -More efficient saccades

Homework
Level 2 Short Term Memory Game: Replace CameraMind
Check out this articleto better understand proper saccade width
Week 4 introduced a lot of new games and even more new skills. Plus, you may still be perfecting the skills you
learned in Week 2. For this reason, its a good time to take a break from the lectures and work on just the games
and exercises for the rest of the week, until you begin Week 5. Also, your homework in Week 5 wont be too time
consuming, so that you can remain focused on the games, skills, and exercises youve learned so far.
You may still be struggling with comprehension while speed reading, and thats ok. In Week 6, we focus on
reading faster and faster, while gradually increasing your comprehension and marker-creation.

SECTION 6: LETS SPEED THINGS UP!

Chapter 22 -Speed training with a card

Chapter 23 -Training at the speed you wish to read

Homework (continue only if youve been diligent with past exercises & improved)
Spreeder software: Try it out, but dont neglect normal reading
Sliding Word utility- a little bit more versatile than Spreeder
Recommended Additional Resources:
Free Speed Reading Test: You can try one of these to measure progress

Chapter 24 -Speed Tip: Tricking your brain into speeding up

Homework: Practice this speed tip

Chapter 25 (New!) - Creating Markers at Speed

Homework: Practice creating markers at speed by reading any text

Chapter 26: Training Going Forward

Homework: Practice everything youve learned so far until you have it down!
After Week 5, you have the knowledge to begin intensively training on your own. If youre not fully able to
speed-read yet, dont worry - it comes with time and can be challenging for some students. Keep practicing, dont
get discouraged, and check out the Facebook group for support from your peers! Youll get it.
As long as you keep practicing, you should continue to the next section. As you become more proficient in speed
reading, youll accumulate more knowledge; having good systems to store all of it long term is now essential.

Before youve perfected your speed reading and marker creation, this week well prepare you to store the huge
amounts of information youll soon be capable of absorbing using orderly, effective systems for long term memory.

SECTION 7: SYSTEMS FOR CREATING & MAINTAINING LONG TERM MEMORIES

Chapter 27 -Mind Mapping

Recommended Supplementary Resources:

MindMeister
How to Mind Map: Beginners Guide
Learn the Skill of Effective Mind Mapping | Udemy

Chapter 28 -Memory Temples (Expanded & Improved!)

Recommended Supplementary Resources

Anthony Metivier Interview: How to Remember Everything
Joshua Foer: Feats of memory anyone can do | TED.com(re-linked)
Moonwalking with Einstein, The Art and Science of Remembering
Dramatically Improve Your Memory with a Memory Palace
Magnetic Memory Method Blog/Podcast with Anthony Metivier- Great!

List of Anthony Metiviers Books(eBook and Paperback available)

Homework: Create your first memory palace and fill it with your to-do or Grocery list

Chapter 29 -Number memorization system

Recommended Supplementary Resources

Remember Any Number With the Major Memory System
How to Train Your Brain and Boost Your Memory Like a Memory Champ

Chapter 30 -Chunking

Recommended Supplementary Resources

Improve Your Memory with The Chunking Technique
Chunking (psychology)
How can we enhance working memory?

SECTION 8: GOOD LEARNING HABITS

Chapter 31 -Sleeping and Learning

Recommended Supplementary Materials

Sleep Drives Metabolite Clearance from the Adult Brain
Russell Foster: Why do we sleep?
Effect of caffeine on memory - Wikipedia
How Long to Nap for the Biggest Brain Benefits
Sleep Hacking: Have More Energy, Spend Less Time in Bed by Scott Britton

Chapter 32 -The proper learning environment

Recommended Supplementary Materials

BBC News | HEALTH | Herbal remedies 'boost brain power'
Lighting affects students' concentration positively
Studies Show Glucose and Oxygen Help Brain
Improving on the $22 IKEA Desk
Oxygen administration enhances memory formation in healthy young adults
Bright light effects on memory, attention and concentration

Chapter 33 -Using Software to Help Us Maintain Memories

Homework
Download and configure Anki(Its a must!)
By now, youre already a SuperLearner, and you can read without subvocalization & memorize information with ease.
From now on, your task is to learn how to apply your new skills to diverse topics. Youll start doing this after Week 6,
and continue doing it for the rest of your life!

Though not all of these lectures will appeal to every students desires and goals, listen to them in order to
understand how you can apply your superlearning skills to anything and everything. Some of the tools offered here
are adaptable to many different areas. Additionally, at this point you have hopefully done a lot of practicing, and are
ready for one final test to assess how much progress youve made.

SECTION 9: APPLYING YOUR NEW SKILLS TO ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING

Chapter 34 -Tailoring the skills: Dense materials or textbooks

Chapter 35 -Tailoring the skills: Learning languages

Recommended Supplementary Resources
Interview w/ Benny Lewis (Fluent in 3 Months)- Becoming SuperHuman
Learn the vocabulary of any language | Udemy
Fluent in 3 Months Blog
Learn a language fast and efficiently - The Tower of Babelfish
Anki: What it is, how to use it (to learn a language)
Chapter 36 -Tailoring the skills: Never forget a face or a name

Chapter 37 -SuperLearning by video or audio

Recommended Supplementary Resources
MySpeed by Enounce
YouTube HTML5 Trial

Chapter 38 - Thank You & Congratulations

Enjoy an 85% OFF coupon for Jonathans other online course, Become a
Speed Demon: Hack Automation & Efficiency to Have More Time

Final Reading Speed & Retention Test: (Appendix 3)

Reading Speed: ___________wpm
Reading Retention: __________%

Thats it! You did it! Just remember; your skills will grow and develop the more you practice them. Never stop!

Thank you for putting in the time and the effort to take this course. If youve enjoyed it,
please take one moment and leave us a review on Amazon or the iBookstore.
We regularly reach out to students who leave us reviews and offer them our help,
guidance, assistance, and personal attention!

Once you stop learning, you start dying.

-Albert Einstein